DARPA's LongShot missile UAV edges toward flight tests

""LongShot burns down significant technical risk and presents a viable path for the military services to increase air combat reach and effectiveness from uninhabited, air-launched platforms," program manager Colonel John Casey said in DARPA's update on the state of the program. "We've completed critical milestones necessary for the integrated flight test campaign, which will validate vehicle performance and lay the foundation for efficient follow-on development.""

"Given that this is a highly experimental DARPA program, details about those critical milestones are scarce, with the Defense Department's research arm only saying that the craft recently completed full-scale wind tunnel tests and successful trials of its parachute recovery and weapon-release systems. Colonel Casey provided some additional details to The Register in an email, noting that the LongShot team has been "diligently working" on maturing systems since the program began."

X-68A LongShot is a full-scale unmanned aircraft designed for air-launch from manned platforms to neutralize airborne threats while avoiding risk to pilots. The program achieved full-scale wind tunnel testing and successful trials of parachute recovery and weapon-release systems. Ongoing work focuses on detailed design of a complex flight vehicle and actuation mechanisms to transition from captive store to free flight. Development of airworthiness and safe separation artifacts is underway to prepare for flight testing. The vehicle is being designed for aircraft-agnostic integration with fighters, bombers, or palletized launch from larger aircraft, with integrated flight tests planned to validate performance and enable follow-on development.

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